Jared Shurin's Blog, page 114

Jurassic: New audio, new bundles and a mummy or two

Stories in every format!

Dark Fiction Magazine have recorded three stories for audio for their special issue on the "outsider", called "ONE OF US":

Alastair Reynolds' "A Map of Mercury" (The Lowest Heaven)
S.L. Grey's "We'll Always Be Here" (The Lowest Heaven)
Sam Sykes' "Wish for a Gun" (A Town Called Pandemonium)

They all sound magnificent and, better yet, they're completely free. (In fact, they're beyondfree - they come with a cheeky discount code from Spacewitch.)

Amazon have started t...

Post-script: Losing It, Judy Blume and John Fowles

A few new books in this week:

Judy Blume's Wifey. Weirdly, I don't actually remember reading anyJudy Blume as a kid. I'm sure I did - and certainly her presence as a cultural juggernaut hasn't escaped me. But, I can't distinguish if I have memories of "reading Judy Blume" or memories of "hearing about Judy Blume so much that it feels like I read them myself". Anyway, Wifey showed up on this Flavorwire list of "40 Trashy Novels You Must Read Before You Die" and it sounded, well... fun.

Irving...

Joey Hi-Fi's Weirdness Rodeo

Welcome to theWeirdness Rodeo- wonder and strangeness, courtesy of artist Joey Hi-Fi.
You can follow Joey on Twitter at@JoeyHiFiandadmire his work here.

First clip from Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem" is fantastic! Features ad for "The Church of Batman The Redeemer" (Topless Robot)

Teaser for a documentary about Tim Burton’s never-made ‘Superman Lives’. Superman vs “Giant spider” anyone? (Comics Alliance)

Introducing: Clonefiles USA (Angry Robot)

It takes a brave band to willingly...

On the joys of extremist reviewing

I haven't wibbled on about Robert W. Chambers for some time, but while reading an essay on him, I found this lovely point:

"A complete account of so versatile and prolific a writer would discuss [his novels] as his significant achievement. If his admirers belong to a class of readers who seek sensation or revel in romance pushed to the utmost bounds of credibility, it is also true that his disclaimers belong to a class that objects, on principle and on hearsay, to reading him at all. The trut...

Friday Five: Stunning Reviews from Strange Horizons

A slightly meta Friday Five this week, as I'm reviewing the reviews... but all in aid of a good cause. Every year, the hard-working folks at Strange Horizons host a fund drive in order to a) keep the lights on and b) pay their contributors.*

There's a nice little reward mechanic as well - when you donate, you're entered into a drawing for nifty prizes.

Like every site I read, I don't agree with all of Strange Horizon's reviews.** In fact, I'd say we're batting somewhere around .500. That sai...

My Year of Disney: Quarterly Progress Report #2

At the the start of this year, I decided to embark on a (possibly insane) quest to watch every single feature-length official animated Disney film this year and to blog about it at my site, Dreampunk.me. You can find all the posts here. I decided to include only the main films done by Walt Disney Animation Studios (therefore, alas, I won’t be covering acknowledged enduring classics such as A Goofy Movie and Bambi 2), and the live-action animated hybrids (mostly because I couldn’t bear skippi...

Underground Reading: The Red Knight by Miles Cameron

This is part of a slightly Quixotic attempt to read and reviewall nine finalists for the David Gemmell Legend Awardbefore the winner is announced at the end of October. I'll be approaching these books in a slightly templated fashion: plot summary, good stuff, not so good stuff, conclusion.

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Hark, a taille!

The Red Knight (2012) is Miles Cameron's debut novel. The titular Red Knight is a young (20ish) mercenary commander. He's mysterious, and known even to his friends as "captain". Still,...

Review Round-up: Brothers, Wives and Children

Three rapid reviews of new releases - David Towsey's Your Brother's Blood, Elissa Wald's The Secret Lives of Married Womenand Kass Morgan's The 100. All of which are either out now or about to be.

Hard Case Crime continue their recent run of brilliance with Elissa Wald'sThe Secret Lives of Married Women(2013). Ms. Wald is, rather shockingly, only the second female writer for the imprint (following in the footsteps of Christa Faust).The Secret Livesis essentially two interlinked novellas that...

Suvudu Universe Still Wants Your Work

Two weeks ago, a few bloggers - myself included - picked apart the terms and conditions of Suvudu Universe, the new platform site from Del Rey (Random House).

It boils down to two issues with the way they are aggregating blog content:

Rights: Suvudu Universe retains the content that bloggers submit indefinitely. They can repurpose or resell that content as they see fit.
Payment: None - not money, books or any other token or in-kind reward.

Since then, there's been an addendum to the terms...

Joey Hi-Fi's Weirdness Rodeo

Welcome to theWeirdness Rodeo- wonder and strangeness, courtesy of Joey Hi-Fi.
You can follow Joey on Twitter at@JoeyHiFiandadmire his work here.

Homemade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 trailer. Thrift store Shredder is fantastic.

Reminder: The Shining Girls Charity Art Event!

Anythingarian, catso, frizilation... and Bransle' - The 'Twerk' of 1662. 16 OED Words That Became Obscure. [Mental Floss]

Your lounge needs this. [Incredible Things]

Punisher meets Transformers reboot anyone? [...